Instead of using an instrument as a constructive hobby during a pandemic or as a midlife crisis, I decided six months ago to buy a $50 guitar and learn to play. People spend years learning from expert teachers but considering we live in the great age of the internet, I realized how difficult it can be to learn to play guitar on my own. If Ed Sheeran can do it, so can I, right?
setting
I soon found that Youtube tutorials just weren’t for me. I needed to streamline things, so I turned to an app specifically Yousician (Opens in a new tab) (available for me android (Opens in a new tab) And iOS (Opens in a new tab)), as it has been downloaded more than 10 million times. He shot it for me for the first time, and he showed me the name of each chord and how to hold the guitar by a very friendly Australian guy who leads all the acoustic guitar sessions and whose face we mysteriously don’t see. I was impressed with how smoothly it ran on a device OnePlus 10TAnd But those with poor eyesight should consider using the app on one The best tablets Alternatively, the notes can be very small.
These were my speeds over. Yousician’s layout of notes is very similar to the Guitar Hero games. The different colored blocks come close to telling you which string to play as well as which finger to use; This was a definite selling point for me. I can’t look at my hands now without thinking of my pointer finger in yellow, middle finger in purple, index finger in blue, and pinkie in orange.
After using the built-in tuner and playing the basics of guitar playing, Yousician locks the rest of his content behind a paywall. The monthly subscription varies depending on whether you subscribe to the Premium or Premium + packages. If you want to learn to play popular songs (not just Yousician originals), go Premium+ for $11 / £9.99 / AU$16 per month. As a Premium+ member, you can learn guitar, piano, ukulele, and vocals too, while Premium subscribers only get one instrument. Premium+ subscribers also get access to courses led by celebs like Metallica and er… Jason Mraz, but those are really very short.
The selection of licensed songs is impressive, even if some of them are (very short) cover versions. Modern hits like Twenty-One Pilots and Imagine Dragons are joined by some classics from the 21st century and 90s (Breakfast at Tiffany’s is fun) all the way to glam rock Bon Jovi and Kiss and then John Denver, the Beach Boys and The Beatles. Some of my favorites include The Cure’s Just Like Heaven, Paramore’s The Only Exception, and the classic The Cranberries Linger.
Learn to play
Despite having no prior musical experience, I soon found myself learning to play songs I could already identify with. Lessons are usually divided into two components, a video tutorial of a real person playing and then an exercise for you to play. Altogether, I would say each takes about 5-10 minutes. The biggest advantage of any app is that I can slow down and restart whatever I’ve been experiencing and can get a real visual indication that I’ve been playing the correct note (notes turn green or red). If I’m a stickler for YouTube or books, I might be learning quite incorrectly.
Yousician does a great job of motivating you to play just one lesson or take one bite-sized lesson. Again, like Guitar Hero, every time you play a song or lesson, you’ll get a score to share with online leaderboards and star ratings. It can be addictive paying to get a high score. Once you complete all the lessons on a certain level, your account “goes up,” and as sad as it sounds, I felt proud every time.
Time to go solo?
Having made it to arithmetic level 5, I am now familiar with most of the basics of guitar playing and some basic theory, but I’m considering discontinuing my subscription. After learning about power chords, octaves, mallets, frequencies, and slides, I now mainly use the app to play new songs.
As a regular player who plays for half an hour to an hour most days, the lessons are getting more and more technical and challenging and I’m starting to move at a fast pace. I’ve come to a point in my life where I can accept that I’m not going to be a rock star, and while I really enjoy playing it’s more of a liberation than a stressor.
I would definitely recommend Yousician to people without guitar knowledge, but I think its usefulness ends at a point, and that’s okay. It’s a testament to the grounding Yousician gave me that if I want to play a song right now, I just look up the chords on the internet. Perhaps now is the time to spread my wings and, like Fleetwood Mac, go my own way.
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